Something in my dreams last night left me anxious upon waking, so I began a mindfulness exercise, noticing the thoughts and sensations that I experienced. A bit of my dream returned to me in the midst of that exercise.

In the dream, I was aboard a ship that was leaving earth for the moon. The moon would then be set on a course for a distant, unknown planet. As the ship headed toward the moon, I watched earth explode from my window. I realized that all that I and my fellow creatures had known was now gone. Some voice--perhaps my own voice--attempted to comfort me by saying that a new world would develop, and it would learn to believe in God, too--just not the same way.

The fleeting nature of all that is, including human belief and memory, settles heavily on me. I look around my home and realize that all that matters so much to me now will be forgotten by future generations within a century. If anything remains of my life, it might be the writings I leave behind, but eventually even those will pass away along with all else that exists.

Perhaps what Julia Cameron writes as the first principle of The Artist's Way is the case: "Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy." Perhaps all is fleeting. Perhaps to live well, to live faithfully, is to know that all creation will come to an end and to engage in the creative act anyway.